Monday, August 27, 2012

Here's a late 1960s commercial with Arthur Godfrey for Axion, a Colgate-Palmolive laundry pre-soak powder.

Of course, in 1970, Arthur stopped doing radio and TV spots from the product after a report came out from Congressional hearings that Axion contained 43.7% phosphate, suspected as a chief element in the excess growth of algae that could kill off other life in lakes and streams.

1970s commercial for Gino's Hamburgers, an East Coast fast-food chain founded in 1957 by former Baltimore Colts defensive end Gino Marchetti and running back Alan Ameche, along with their good friend Louis Fischer. The regional chain was bought out by Mariott Corporation in 1982. The brand was discontinued and locations were converted into Roy Rogers restaurants.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Neil Armstrong, who, as the first man who set foot on the Moon on July 20, 1969, made that one "Giant Leap for Mankind," passed away on Saturday of complications from heart surgery at an undisclosed location at the age of 82.Mr. Armstrong and Colonel Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin set foot on the moon after climbing off the Eagle Lunar Excurision Module during the Apollo 11 mission.Michael Collins piloted the Columbia Command Module, which orbited the moon.Shown below is a photograph that Colonel Adrin took of Mr. Armstrong shortly after they set foot on the Lunar surface.NASA photo

At Regina, Saskatchewan:Running back Jon Cornish ran 24 times for 159 yards while quarterback Kevin Glenn connected on 15 of 24 passes for 171 yards and two first-quarter touchdowns as the Calgary Stampeders (4-4) held off the sagging Saskatchewan Roughriders (3-5), now losers of five straight games after a 3-0 start, 17-10 in Saturday Canadian Football League action.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Produced by Gene Autry's Flying A Productions in 1955, here's an episode of Buffalo Bill, Jr. In this one, "Trail of the Killer," Bill (played by Dick Jones) meets Billy the Kid (Chuck Courtney).The series aired in first-run syndication during 1955 and 1956. Reruns aired briefly on ABC during the 1964-65 season.

Steve Van Buren, the Hall of Fame running back who helped lead the Philadelphia Eagles to the NFL championship in 1948 and 1949, passed away on Thursday at Lancaster, Pennsylvania at the age of 91.

Nicknamed "Wham-Bam," the former LSU star, best known for his quick, punishing running style, joined the Eagles in 1944 as a first-round draft selection.

Mr. Van Buren, a five-time All-Pro selection, scored the only touchdown of the 1948 title game, played at Philadelphia's Shibe Park (a.k.a. Connie Mack Stadium) during a blinding snowstorm. Steve ran for the score from five yards as the Eagles avenged their title-game defeat from the previous year, blanking the Chicago Cardinals 7-0.

The following year, at a rain-soaked Los Angeles Coliseum, Wham-Bam ran for 196 yards as the visiting Eagles blanked the Los Angeles Rams 14-0, becoming the only team to this date to win championships via back-to-back shutouts.

Honduras-born Steve, who retired just prior to the start of the 1952 season due to a leg injury, bacame the first Eagles player to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Phyllis Diller, the sassy comedienne best remembered for her sassy, screeching, rapid-fire, stand-up delivery who paved the way for two generations of female comics, passed away on Monday at her Brentwood, California home at age 95.

Miss Diller starred in a pair of failed TV shows during the 1960s (The Pruitts of Southampton and The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show).

Inspired by Bob Hope, Phyllis actually appeared in three 1960s films with Bob, none very successful.

William Windom, the veteran character actor who starred in two vintage television sitcom series, The Farmer's Daughter (1963-66) and, perhaps more famously, My World And Welcome To It (1969-70) for which he won an Emmy Award for his portrayal of an Everyman drawn from the pages of James Thurber, passed away this past Thursday at his Woodacre, California from congestive heart failure at age 88.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

At Vancouver, British Columbia:Cauchy Muamba came up with two interceptions on defense while quarterback Travis Lulay completed 22 of 30 passes for 257 yards and a touchdown as the British Columbia Lions (5-2) dominated the visiting (and sagging) Saskatchewan Roughriders (3-4) 24-3 in Sunday Canadian Football League action.

Friday, August 17, 2012

From Grand National Pictures in 1939, we present Anna Sten and Alan Marshall starring in "Exile Express." In this one, a group of spies would stop at nothing to get their hands on a secret formula carried by Americans.

This 1939 United Players production, with screenplay by Edwin Justice Mayer and Ethel La Blanche, music by George Parrish, and photography by John Mescall (ASC), was directed by Otis Garrett and produced by Eugene Frenke.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Ron Palillo, the actor best remembered for playing nerdy Sweathog Arnold Horshack on the 1970's TV sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter, passed away on Tuesday after suffering an apparent heart attack at his Palm Beach Gardens, Florida home at age 63.Mr. Palillo became the second actor who played the role of a Sweathog on the ABC sitcom headlined and co-created by Gabe Kaplan to pass away this year, with Robert "Juan Epstein" Hegyes having suffered a fatal heart attack at age 60 this past January.

From 1949, as part of Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes series, we present Bugs Bunny starring in "Bushy Hare." In this one, that wascally wabbit matches wits in the Australian Outback with an Australian Aborigine who looks like Chuck Barris with a beard.

Friday, August 10, 2012

At New Orleans:Quarterback Nick Davila (named the game's Most Valuable Player) completed 23 of 30 passes for 266 yards and an ArenaBowl record-tying nine touchdowns, seven of them to Maurice Purify (setting an ArenaBowl record) as the Arizona Rattlers won their third Arena Football League championship, their first since 1997, with a 72-54 victory over the Philadelphia Soul on Friday night.

At Edmonton, Alberta:Quarterback Steven Jyles completed 18 of 23 passes for 282 yards and a touchdown on Friday as the Edmonton Eskimos (4-2) defeated the visiting Saskatchewan Roughriders (3-3) 28-20 in Canadian Football League action. Joe Bennett picked up a fumbled and ran it back 44 yards for an Eskimos touchdown, while Calvin McCarthy ran six yards on a third-down play for another Edmonton TD. After starting 3-0, the Riders have now dropped three straight games.

Here's a promotional film for the 1956 Nash Ambassador, narrated by cartoonist Ed Zern, who made a series of magazine ads for Nash Motors (and the subsequent Nash Division of American Motors) during the 1950s.

Here's a 1955 commercial for the Hudson dealers featuring a free paining of Fess Parker as Davy Crockett (signed by Fess himself) and a contest which the top winner would win a trip to Disneyland and a 1955 Hudson Hornet V-8 Hollywood Hardtop. Second prize is the trip and a 1955 Hudson Wasp and third prize is the trip plus a '55 Hudson Rambler Cross-Country station wagon.

Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Pianist and composer Marvin Hamlisch, who wrote the Academy Award-winning score for the motion picture "The Sting," who had a hit recording of the Scott Joplin-composed Ragtime classic "The Entertainer," who wrote the theme music for ABC's Good Morning America, and who composed the musical "A Chorus Line," passed away on Monday in Los Angeles following a brief illness at age 68.

Robert Hughes, the Austrailian-born longtime chief art critic for Time Magazine who was an original co-host of the ABC News magazine series 20/20, passed away on Monday at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, New York following a long illness at age 74.A combative and eloquent art critic with the distinctively rounded vowels of his native land, Mr. Hughes co-hosted the debut episode of 20/20 back in June, 1978 with a North Carolina-born, Oxford-educated magazine editor named Harold Hayes.The episode did not go well. As required, Mr. Hayes and Mr. Hughes always addressed each other on the show as Hayes and Hughes. Perhaps the most notorious segment was a sensationalistic expose by Geraldo Rivera on greyhound racing, which included a gruesome scene of dogs chasing and dismembering a live rabbit in training.Also included on the show was a claymation figure of then-President Jimmy Carter, mouthing to Ray Charles' recording of "Georgia On My Mind."After scathing reviews (and weak ratings) of the opener, Harold and Robert got the boot and were replaced by Hugh Downs, after which the show's presentation was gradually improved.

Friday, August 03, 2012

Larry Brackens scored a franchise-record eight touchdowns on Friday as the Philadelphia Soul destroyed the visiting (and defending champions) Jacksonville Sharks 89-34 to win the Arena Football League's American Conference championship and earn a berth in ArenaBowl XXV next Friday in New Orleans against the winner of Saturday's Utah-Arizona National Conference title game.